As Arizona fights to steal top recruits in Southern California away from local USC and UCLA — and is probably doing better in that regard than it has in a long time, thanks to Greg Johnson in particular — it feels like as good a time of any to call back to a time when the Wildcats actually did steal a couple prominent recruits from the Trojans grasp.
It is Thursday, after all. Fit for a throwback.
The recruiting coup happened, in large part, thanks to Dino Babers, an assistant on Dick Tomey's staff who spent his last three years at Arizona as offensive coordinator.
The first one was in 1996, when Babers was after a then-little known running back named Dennis Northcutt out of Dorsey HS in Los Angeles. He initially picked the Wildcats over Arizona State and San Diego State, and then after committing resisted overtures from USC and UCLA.
Fun fact: when the Wildcats initially decided to put Northcutt at running back instead of cornerback, they moved a redshirt freshman Trung Canidate to corner. Clearly, that didn't pan out...
Northcutt wound up having the best individual receiving season in UA history —88 receptions for 1,422 yards and eight touchdowns — before a 10-year career in the NFL.
For the next one, Babers pulled an even tougher task — flipping a top recruit from a commitment to USC to the Wildcats.
That's what happened with Brandon Manumaleuna, a highly-touted tight end from Nathaniel Narbonne in Harbor City, California. Manumaleuna had initially committed to the Trojans over his other top choices, BYU and Arizona, along with offers from Colorado and Arizona State.
"I grew up Mormon so my mom wanted me to go to BYU, my sister went there," Manumaleuna said recently. "I wanted to stay home and go to USC, my mom liked Dino Babers, she and him became good friends, she liked him. ASU had just went to the Rose Bowl and I liked it there. Colorado, it was fun.
"But I was leaning toward USC."
Heading into Signing Day, Manumaleuna became hesitant, for a couple reasons. One, his mom wasn't exactly a fan of USC's coaching staff after the head coach, John Robinson, called him the wrong name while he was visiting campus.
Then, when Manumaleuna was starting to second-guess his decision, a USC assistant turned unpleasant.
"He basically cussed me out on the phone," Manumaleuna said. "He was like ‘we have another kid waiting on your decision.’ Basically all the top tight ends in California were all going to the same school. So I ended up going to Arizona.
"It worked out."
Babers was certainly happy, telling the Star in a recent phone interview "we were doggone lucky to get him."
Sure did — Manumaleuna played all four years at Arizona before a 10-year NFL career, including a rookie season where he played in the Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams.
To this day, 20 years later, Babers still considers that one of his greatest recruiting moments.
"It was, it really was," Babers said. "Dennis Northcutt could’ve went to USC and went to Arizona. Brandon had a chance to go to USC and went to Arizona, and I think there’s one or two more but those were my two big recruiting battles."
